Chelsea
Getting a 27 year old starter for the England national team on the cheap is definitely a good deal from a purely financial point of view. From a tactical point of view, Raheem Sterling's strength as a winger is nothing to worry about, and his ability to steal points in the middle of the field may even be more effective than Kai Havertz, who can play on the wing or in the forward line.
Chelsea
Eventually whether or not a change in formation will give him the insurance card for his position.
There's one year left on the contract.
Manchester City football club
With players unable to return to form, and players unable to wait for satisfactory playing time, the choice was made to go their separate ways, and the £47.5m price tag is probably a fair result for both teams, with Leroy Sane leaving for 50m, plus the element of enemy funding, and the financial constraints of the epidemic added and subtracted, it's a barely passable asking price. However, if you look at the team's roster, the deal is not as intuitive.
Manchester City football club
How could this be such a clean break? How can players' playing time decline year after year?
The author asked a small survey on his personal community site a few days before the article was published, and the question was do people really hate Sterling?
The left-of-center results seem to be pretty good, yet 13 people (about 11%) gave the rightmost answer - specifically annotated as yes, he's really thunderous and goes well. This post, then, will try to identify Sterling's flaws in a way that is distasteful to fans.
The Potential Risks of Being Gorgeous
Constantly trying to cross has always been Sterling's signature maneuver. According to fbref, his
on average
attempts
Number of passes
Split 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 1st on the team, but
on average
successes
Number of passes
Instead, it was a more up-and-down 4th, 2nd, 5th, 1st, and 1st place finish. The reason for this is that his success rate, although occasionally good, is generally lower than that of his teammates.
Data taken from fbref
Kevin De Bruyne's high-risk, high-payoff direct kicks become classic HIGHLIGHTS time and time again when they succeed, or when they fail.
Manchester City football club
Sterling's possession of the ball came to an abrupt end and saw KDB's red-faced and grumbling reaction of frustration. In a similar vein, Sterling's constant attempts to go one-on-one with opposing wingbacks, and perhaps even carry the ball into the box in the face of a tackle, can be seen to be followed up by an effortless cut-out or cross, or failing that by
Manchester City football club
The possession comes to a screeching halt and sees Sterling's slightly stupid buy foul down move, with the more extreme fans even pointing at his butt-crossing body movements.
The attempts at the plate were again a huge difference from his teammates last season, and such a difference came from the mouth of Sterling himself.
The previous style was more dynamic, more passing: me on one side, Sane on the other, two motorcycles swooshing around. The current style is more patient, keeps the ball more, and has a slower tempo, but both styles take care of the ball well and score goals.
The 20/21 season also saw the emergence of Phil Foden on the left wing, who cosplayed with Sterling on a motorcycle. In the 21/22 season, with Foden being pulled into the middle of the park as a pseudo 9, Sterling looked like the Adama Traore of Wolves and the Allan Saint-Maximin of Newcastle, with success rate and efficiency aside, and dominance as the number one requirement. Sterling averaged 4.62 attempts per game last year, well above the team's second-ranked average of 2.92 attempts by Gabriel Jesus.
45.0% success rate, below average performance (
England Premier Soccer League
Edge ranked 26th percentile).Sterling so instead of destroying the
Manchester City football club
The pace of the offense was pulling the rug out from under the team! Such skepticism began to coalesce quickly.
End in front of the door
England Premier Soccer League
Only three of his seven career free throws have gone in, a 42.9% chance well below the xG model's expectation of about 0.76 up or down.
And that's just the beginning. The author made an effort this past April to target
Manchester City football club
Happy Feet's mocking voice, to
Manchester City football club
All the midfielders have written an article on finishing in front of the goal. Sterling is pictured below
Actual goals scored-
Expected goals
The Career Tracker.
Data taken from understat
Sterling's finishing ability was suddenly knocked back down after the no-huddle began to be used more often, and last year saw the lowest point of his career.
The block with the best goal scoring efficiency is the obligatory tap in at the red box above, where the xG per shot is almost always above 0.5
(The usual false expectations for watching football are probably
The next best thing is the BIG chance from the outside of the box to near the 12-yard box, where the xG per shot mostly falls between 0.3 and 0.5
(The usual false expectations for watching football are probably
(above?)
Sterling's record on the latter shot can be described as dismal. And at the red box, despite a near 100% grasp last year, many fans were never able to get out of the 19/20 season
European crown
of the gloom.
